Guide on Cover Letter

If your CV has to fetch you an interview call, your cover letter needs to compel the prospective employer read your CV.

Make your cover letter an interesting document, from the reader’s point of view. It should be so focused on employer’s interests that he should not be able to decline reading the CV. If your cover letter can do this, it has achieved its purpose.

To ensure that you get it right the first time, there are some Dos and Don’ts of writing a cover letter. However, you may have to go against the suggestions at times, depending upon the need. There is no harm in doing so if you are doing it purposely.

Writing a cover letter:

Keep it short and simple

Address the letter to a person rather than to a Madam/Sir

Every time you send it out, customize your cover letter

Write from reader’s point of view rather than yours

Start with something interesting about their job notification or their recent news, to catch their attention

Direct the reader to your CV, mentioning about some key skills notified in the advertisement and how your candidature fits into them

Be assertive but polite

Get the spellings and the grammar correct

Prompt the reader to take an action

Don’ts of writing a cover letter

Dear Sir/Madam. Find out the name of the responsible person and address your cover letter to him

‘I’, ‘my’ in the cover letter make you egomaniac

Aggressive language

Spelling mistakes are the biggest turn off

Addressing your self as Mr. / Ms.

Sending out hand written cover letters

Sounding tentative until you willfully want to.

One very important thing which you have to keep in mind while writing your cover letter, if you are addressing it to Dear XYZ, it needs 'Yours sincerely' at the end, while if you are addressing it to Dear Sir, it should end with Yours faithfully.

If you ensure that you follow these tips while writing your cover letter, the chances of your CV getting short listed for an interview are quite bright. So, when you want to draft your next cover letter, don’t forget to go through these tips before starting.